1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for storing and dispensing plastic drink lids.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In many fast food restaurants and convenience markets, a customer serves his own drink from a self-serve drink dispenser after he has been given a cup by a clerk or takes a cup from a cup dispenser. If he wants a lid, the customer then selects the lid from an open stack or tray. In general, the lids in the stack are presented right side up and are difficult to separate because they are nested.
If the customer selects the wrong size lid or if he gets more than one lid because they stick together, he may put the unwanted lids back in the stack or tray, which tends to become more and more disordered. A lid may be handled by several different people before it is selected by the ultimate user. In those establishments where the lids are kept behind the counter with the cups, the same problem occurs except that the lids are handled by store personnel instead of the public.
The need for a sanitary dispenser for disposable lids has been recognized and several dispensers have been designed, including ones developed by the inventor of the subject dispenser. There is a continuing need, however, for a dispenser which is inexpensive to build, simple for store personnel to set up and fill with lids and easy for a customer to operate.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a superior dispenser for plastic drink lids, one which can be built inexpensively and one which is simple for store personnel to set up and fill with lids and easy for a user to operate. Other objects and features of the invention will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.
The present invention concerns a lid dispenser for storing and dispensing flexible plastic drink lids having a substantially circular closure wall and a downwardly extending peripheral skirt. The dispenser has an elongated body shaped to contain a plurality of the lids in nested, upside down relationship forming a stack. The elongated body has a longitudinal axis with a predominantly vertical orientation and a cross-section greater than the diameter of the lids to be dispensed to allow movement of such lids along the longitudinal axis of the elongated body. The elongated body also has a dispensing slot parallel to the longitudinal axis of the elongated body through which the lids are dispensed and a gravity biased finger carried by the elongated body generally opposite said dispensing slot. The gravity a biased finger is adapted to contact the peripheral skirt of the uppermost lid, clamping the uppermost lid against the next-to-uppermost lid in the stack and tilting the uppermost lid at an acute angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the elongated body thereby facilitating dispensing of the said lid through the dispensing slot.
The invention summarized above comprises the constructions hereinafter described, the scope of the invention being indicated by the subjoined claims.